richard@imutual wrote:For those keen to give ongoing promotion to a 'good cause' topic, you always have the option of putting a link to said topic in your signature. The "Give blood" thread serves as a good example.
Now I know I am old.
I could have sworn (as you can see my Blog if you look around a bit, but I digress...) that we all voted and narrowly (and upsettingly for some) agreed no signatures with links, possibly no signatures at all.
I have taken mine out entirely in response.
But then I am a pensioner so no doubt getting forgetful.
So here are some suggestions:
Some forums have the ability to let members FLAG articles.
Some complex polynomial function involving number of flags that are classified as BUMP/spam per hour combined with the absolute number of flags, in a weighted average of some sort. (So a blatent article that irritates 10, 20, 30, (who decides how many) members in 5 minutes gets killed pending investigation say, or one that gets 20 votes as obnoxious, spam, bump, etc in TOTAL over any time span, gets killed, just for example). The article, not the person writing it!
Or just have some admins that are trustworthy and fair minded to police the forums as volunteers.
That counts me out, so I am not suggesting this to get a job, I already turned one Admin post down somewhere else, as I do not think I can do the job at all without upsetting everyone at some time or other.
Maybe some restriction on number of posts in a thread to stop repeated bumps.
Filter out posts using a script that detects cheeky bar stewards just saying "BUMP".
(Would be interesting to see if the scripts backdate when run and remove this post, so making subsequent posts mentioning it, orphaned. But I digress, yet again...)
Posts with just smileys in, delete.
Posts with non English, delete (for example if the lazy clump-of-grass just types kwiberfgvwberfgvbwf like wot I just did).
Posts with too few words (although who decides how few?) I waffle on a lot, but sometimes even I can precis a situation in a few short sharp acerbic words that get the result intended. No need for dozens of words where a few work better.
Sometimes bringing a post to the fore, might be useful, so some posts might get "told off" unjustly. But before someone suggests a trial-by-jury, a bit like the missing commission process that we already have, honestly, the time that would be spent on a similar process is not worth it for Bumping.
Ultimately if Richard thinks a person is bumping for the wrong reasons, then presumably every imutual member supports him in taking the action only an Admnin can take, including suspending the forum access (not saying delete the account entirely so they lose their earnings unpaid).
Just some ideas for the more sensble members to cogitate on, and improve.
And if I am one of the "bumpers", let me know.